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Yesterday I got an email with the subject: 'Congratulations 2012 Microsoft MVP!’ To be very honest I was very excited when I saw this mail and while reading it I just kept thinking ‘this is awesome'.For those who are not familiar with the program, the MVP award is given to exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily and actively share their high-quality, real-world technical expertise with the community.

A gift from my friend Larry:
Tony Stark talking to Nick Fury

The award is only for one year but the really cool thing about the award is the fact that you are part of the MVP community for that year. Based on what I know about the MVP community I always thought that becoming an MVP will be like joining the Avengers (Yes time to be a geek). Why did I choose the Avengers instead of some other group like the Jedi Order or Justice League? Because I wanted to relate it to something recent and the Avengers movie is coming out next month. Do we run around in capes, tights and masks to save people life? No but MVPs do help people!

Becoming an MVP is like joining the Avengers because you can't sign up to join, you must be selected. The Avengers will ask a hero to join based on his/her heroic acts and other factors such as character, intelligence, motivation, etc. Similarly MVPs get nominated based on their technical knowledge, contributions to communities and factors such as leadership, motivation, etc. Another similarity is the fact that both groups have top secret meetings and discussions to ensure they achieve the goals of the group. In the case of the Avengers an example would be the safety of the world and in the case of the MVPs an example would be providing feedback and recommendations about Microsoft products.

In my opinion, the main similarity that makes both groups strong is the fact that they have individuals with different strengths. Some of the benefits of this fact are: collaboration among members to achieve great tasks that cannot be done by just one member, the ability to learn from each other and the availability of new resources to continue community/heroic activities. Hey you can't be on a superhero team if you stop being a superhero the same way you can't be an MVP if you stop learning and sharing with the community!

I am very glad and honoured to receive this recognition. I want to thank Microsoft and MVP Lead Fernando Garcia Loera for this award. Many thanks to my family, friends and of course the SQL Community for all the support and assistance they have given me. Last and most importantly I must thank God for everything!